Time to come clean.

I was a bit cocky. When I purchased Monty and Luna, I thought I would have them working and pulling a carriage within 6 months. I thought I’d just go through the training steps, give them some exposure, put a cart on them and voila, the world would be a happy place. I was wrong. Very wrong. 

My desperation for a pair of greys led me to make some very bad choices on how to acquire a pair of greys. They say every Horse comes into your life for a reason, and I figured that Boris and Stanley had taught me all of the lessons. I was convinced that I would get Monty and Luna, train them to harness and Hey Presto I would have my magnificent pair of greys and carry on with life.

I (stupidly) failed to realise how differently each horse learns. I’ve not had experience with baroque breeds before but I know now what I didn’t know then. It’s incredible how much these guys overthink! I mean, they even make me look like an amateur in the overthinking department. 

It’s easy to say a certain method will work for a certain breed, but even that is incorrect. Monty and Luna themselves are very individual creatures and I have learnt that I need to treat them as such. Both are happy long reining and pulling a tyre, both in an open bridle and with full winkers. Both are easy to take out and about and are fine in new situations (now anyway, not so much initially). They are much better if they go out individually,  when they go out together separation anxiety can be very hard to deal with, but that’s another story.

Luna in particular doesn’t like to stand when she is working. She is very keen and very forward. She really doesn’t see this need to stand still and as a result, she will tangle herself up in the traces. I spoke to a trainer who gave me some very good tips to work through this, but ultimately she got the better of me, and made me start doubting my training and lose confidence. This trainer (who is an absolute guru) had a small window of time where he was able to take her on, thinking she would be easy to get going. I took her up to Owen. On the second day she was there, he had her pulling the cart and she was content and happily walking. Within a few days however she had started refusing to go forward, instead choosing to back up, really just demonstrating that she did not want to do the job.

I brought her home threw my hands in the air and decided that I would just sell both Monty and Luna and try and recoup my losses.

The first person that came to view them however, made me realise that perhaps selling them wasn’t a great option either and I needed to try harder to make them understand and be happy with the lifestyle I offer. Given it was summer, I put them to work doing splash sessions, and they blew me away with how much they enjoyed it. It was nice to see how much they enjoyed engaging with people and playing in the lake, reigniting a bit of the optimism I had lost in them.

With Luna and progressing her in harness, I have changed tactics slightly. I’ve started long reining her in pairs with an experienced horse. We put her in an open bridle as watching her videos back, she appeared to want better vision, however after pulling the cart in a pair with the open bridle, she seemed to concede that limited vision would be better, so we put her back in winkers. I’ve now paired her with Angus, and will also put her with Henry, to try and get her comfortable pulling a carriage that way. 

Monty is a completely different kettle of fish. He is quite lazy and when the going gets tough Monty decides he doesn’t want to do it. Impulsion and direction are very important with Monty. I have had the two wheeler cart sitting on him but at this point I haven’t asked him to walk off. 

It has dawned on me that in the deep sand I have at home, manoeuvring my cart is quite a challenge. For this reason I am changing approach with him also. Next time I work him, we will go to an area (where we’ve been for practice visits) where there is bitumen in order to make the cart move as easily as possible. I think Monty will do the job at hand if it is easy enough for him. Over time we can build up his muscles, to give him the confidence and strength required. 

After much soul searching, it has dawned on me that it would absolutely be easier to sell them and find other horses (other than the dealing with buyers bit), but that wouldn’t teach me what I need to learn. It has dawned on me that these guys came into my life to teach me more things. It is really scary. The more we learn the more we realise just how much we don’t know. To get these guys over the line, I am needing to step so far out of my comfort zones. There is always a new skill that I need to learn, a new technique or a different approach that I need to try. I’m hopeful that by the end of the year I will have them working as a pair, and ideally both of them in singles. In the meantime it is a case of continually working with them building their confidence and gaining their trust and believing in myself to keep momentum going forward.